Giant wall rulers are becoming a bit of a trend in children’s interiors – and now that I’ve seen Rob Ryan’s Ruler for measuring the growth of human beings, I’m going to have to jump right on that bandwagon. It’s a beaut!
Rob designed the ruler for contemporary furniture shop and supplier of other design loveliness SCP. It features his characteristic paper cut design together with a poem, screen printed by hand on birch plywood. If you move house you can take the ruler with you, rather than having to leave your recordings behind on a doorpost or wall. So if you look after this lovely piece of design, you can hand it down to your kids when they start having their own family. Pretty cool, right?
I love the poem’s sentiment too – here it is (taken from Rob’s blog):
“The village grew into a town and the town grew into a whole city. The tree grew up to the sky and the river grew as it flowed down towards the sea and the flowers they grew until they covered the whole field and from inside the depths of our hearts you grew as well. Every single day a tiny unnoticeable bit more and more of you, and all of the long days and all of the short days will add up to yet more of you until there is no more growing to be grown and the last mark on this ruler will have been made.
But yet still inside you there will never be a shortage to the amount of love your heart can grow and day by day and year by yet you can grow in your heart still more care and more sympathy and more trust and more kindness until it finally blossoms and its flowers cover the entire world.”
(images: SCP)
I’ve touched on it in my Bubble London highlights post already, but now Olive Loves Alfie Colour, the new paint range from London based children’s store Olive Loves Alfie is available from the Olive Loves Alfie website. The range was conceived by store owner Ashlyn Gibson in collaboration with The Nursery Paint Company. It’s all super child-friendly stuff – 100% VOC free, made from soya beans and anti-bacterial (great for day nurseries as far as I’m concerned). Best of all are the colours – not your typical children’s pastels and primaries, but really zingy, fresh and thoroughly modern colours that will be loved by children and grown-ups alike. With names like Helter Skelter, Ghost Train, Trapeze and Showgirl, what’s not to love? I picture these colours as accent colours on doors, architraves, skirting or furniture. Nothing to stop you from using it on entire walls though.
I’d love to hear which colour from the 15 strong range is your favourite. On launch day at Bubble London, a clear favourite emerged. Can you guess which?
(images: olive loves alfie)
Do you know that feeling when you come across something new and your heart just jumps? That’s what I felt when I walked past StrikAholic‘s stand on a recent visit to Home London. StrikAholic is a Danish company that offers a range of homewares such as cushions and blankets (‘strik’ meaning ‘knitwear’ in Danish), but what I fell in love with was the bedding on their fab washing line display – how fun is this?!
StrikAholic was founded by designer Dorte Niedziella, who loved knitting from a very young age. What I love about her designs is that they straddle the boundaries between grown-up and kid’s design. So, it didn’t come as a surprise when Dorte told me she tries to keep her childhood curiosity alive in everyday adult life. She is inspired by everyday things and gets lots of ideas when she’s together with her three children. They make her think of her own childhood and what she loved to do, and often her designs flow from this. I recognise myself in this as I often think back to my own childhood when designing a room. Dorte’s Visiontest cover was the result of many a visit to the doctor with her kids. The Paper Doll design goes back to one of her favourite pastimes as a child, playing with paper dolls with her sister. When her daughters started to take an interest in paper dolls too, and started drawing pretty dresses, Dorte thought they’d make a great design for a duvet cover.
My favourite design is Nordic Inspiration, shown on the far left on the washing line and below. It’s inspired by classic Scandinavian knitting patterns and only available in adult sizes, so it works if your child has a normal single bed. Some of the other reversible designs are available in junior sizes as well. All are produced to Danish standards, but different sizes can be made on request. Fingers crossed that StrikAholic‘s bedding will be available here soon, but in the mean time you can contact them directly, as they’ll ship to the UK.
(images: room to bloom, strikaholic)
There was one thing at Bubble London this week that popped up at display after display: vintage suitcases and trunks. Stacked on shelves, stools and on the floor, they were present in all shapes and sizes and from all eras. Many of these beauties looked well-loved and well-used, which to me is part of their appeal. Not only do they look great, they make excellent storage too – many of the exhibitors commented how handy they were to transport bits and pieces to the show.
Vintage suitcases and trunks make great storage for a child’s room. They form a cool contrast against a contemporay background and mix equally well with a retro inspired or shabby chic decor. So where to get hold of them?
1. Your parents’ or grandparents’ attic – they’re even better with a bit of history : ) The suitcases at Organic Zoo above belonged to the exhibitor’s well-travelled great grandparents and they’re often used in the brand’s photo shoots!
2. Ebay – search for ‘retro suitcase‘, ‘vintage trunk’, etc.
3. Charity shops on your local high street.
4. Flea markets and car boot sales – down here in London Alfies Antiques Market is worth a visit, or check locally (for me it’s Haynes Lane Market in Crystal Palace).
5. Vintage shops – I personally enjoy the hunt for hidden treasure, but if you don’t and are willing to pay a little more for fully restored items, then try specialist shops such as London Vintage Luggage (online + an amazing store at Stables Market in Camden), or retro furniture shops such as The Old Cinema or Crystal Palace Antiques Warehouse.
What’s your favourite place to hunt for vintage treasure? Share it with us in the comments below!
(images: room to bloom)
Meet the latest addition to the Lapin & Me baby bunny lamp family, Posy Pink! Her blue and white siblings are still my favourites, but she makes a sweeeet addition, don’t you think?
You can buy these sweetpeas at online shop Lapin & Me – a true treasure trove for vintage inspired, quirky home decor and gifts for grown-up and children’s rooms alike. Enjoy your browse!
(images: lapin & me)
Whilst visiting trade shows Top Drawer & Home last week, I discovered some lovely new child-friendly products and was reacquainted with others. I’ll try and cover some of these finds over the next few weeks or so. The first I wanted to highlight was a Danish company called Manostiles, whose children’s bedding and patterned storage boxes I particularly liked. Owner Mette Lindeberg was ever so helpful in helping me to get a good picture of the stand with a quick restyle, but the product shots on her website are waaay better, so let’s stick with those.
Manostiles’ children’s bedding is not quite the same size as standard UK junior duvet sizes, so you’ll need to check whether it will fit. I still wanted to show you these images as I love the use of colour in a mostly white room. Perhaps Mette can be persuaded to produce UK sizes too? Remember that duvets are not recommended by health professionals for babies under 12 months as there is a risk of overheating. Take a look at the John Lewis website for guidance on buying children’s bedding from a safety point of view.
To keep a baby room clutter free, Manostiles’ patterned storage boxes would keep your changing supplies nicely organised – use them without their lid on the changing table for example. They’d also make great coordinated storage for small toys, hairbands, pins, jewellery and other trinkets.
(images: manostiles)
I’m visiting Kleine Fabriek in Amsterdam on Sunday, so will be travelling to Holland again. Kleine Fabriek is an international bi-annual trade show for children’s fashion, shoes, accessories and home & gift collections. It’s my first visit and I’m really looking forward to it. Watch this space for a full report ; )
Whilst I’m away I wanted to share this cute little find I came accross the other day. It’s a duvet cover called ‘Bob’ from Dutch label Snurk (meaning ‘Snore’). Bob is the dog of the photographer who created the image for the duvet cover. Apparently Bob loves sleeping on his owner’s bed, but of course, Bob wasn’t sleepy at all on the day of the shoot. He finally succumbed to a nap under the warm lights of the studio – et voila.
Wouldn’t you have loved to have a dog sleeping on your bed like this when you were little? You still can. Bob is available from the Snurk online shop in a range of UK sizes.
(images: snurk)
Whilst over in Holland for Christmas, my eye was caught by the beautiful December stamps people were using to send their Christmas and New Year cards. They have a definite Scandinavian feel and are all so sweet, but my favourite has to be the little deer with decorated antlers!
A little bit of research brought to light that they were designed by one of my favourite Dutch magazines, Flow, in partnership with the German artist Elisandra Sevenstar. Elisandra sells her prints through her Etsy shop, where I found many colourful prints of the type of retro pottery I love, as well as a customisable “kiddie shelf” print. You can have different book titles printed on the book spines (your childhood favourites or your child’s name for example) and change the letters on the wooden blocks as well. Sweet!
If your child has a play kitchen you could hang some of these pottery prints nearby.
(images: elisandra sevenstar, post.nl)
I’ve always known POPJE.COM for their cute birth announcement cards, but I just came across these pretty Christmas and New Year cards in their online shop. Okay – it’s too late for Christmas cards now, but if you, like me, have realised you’ve missed someone out from your Christmas card list, there’s still time to send them a New Year’s card instead!
POPJE.COM was founded by Dutch designer Marenthe Otten following the birth of her daughter Lila Poppy. When she tried but couldn’t find her ideal birth announcement card, Marenthe decided to design and create her own collection. Lucky for us in the UK, POPJE.COM has an English website which makes ordering easy!
I’ll be traveling to Holland tomorrow to celebrate Christmas with my family there. Hopefully I’ll bring back some more Dutch inspiration for you. Happy Christmas everyone! x
(images: POPJE.COM)
Eloise Hall is a paper artist based in London who creates beautiful collages of butterflies, dragonflies, birds and fish. She contacted me a while ago to introduce her work. Now that I have started my blog I can finally share a bit more of it with you. Eloise combines hand cut shapes from origami paper and ink drawing. She cleverly brings together colour, pattern and movement to create calm feeling tableaux. They would look stunning in a simple, light nursery.
A piece of art that you really love can be a great starting point for the design of your baby’s room. Pick out one or two colours from the piece and use them elsewhere in the room to pull the room together.
A Christmas gift idea for a mum-to-be?
(images: eloise hall)
